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Editorial: Angelique Espinoza for House District 10

Posted:
06/04/2016 08:15:15 PM MDT

Angelique Espinoza talks to Democrats at her table at the Boulder County Democratic Assembly in March. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

The city of Boulder east of Broadway makes up the heart of Colorado House District 10, so it is not surprising that there should be no shortage of interested and qualified candidates to fill the seat being vacated by Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, who is term-limited. Hullinghorst departs as speaker of the House, so her successor has big shoes to fill.

Two candidates are running for the Democratic Party nomination to succeed her. With no Republican or other candidate on the ballot, the election for this seat is not in November, when most 2016 races will be decided, but is instead this month, in the primary, with mail ballots going out this week and the final day of voting — primary day — on June 28.

The two candidates are:

• Angelique Espinoza, 47, a member of Boulder City Council from 2007-09 and public affairs director of the Boulder Chamber from 2011-15.

• Edie Hooton, 58, a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate and Alaska State Legislature in the 1970s and '80s, and more recently president of the Democratic Women of Boulder County.

Each candidate spent about an hour with the Camera editorial board last week. Each was responsive to our questions and, in our judgment, both fall within the mainstream of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Frankly, we're not entirely sure why they're running against each other. Espinoza got into the race first — a full 15 months ago. Hooton, who has worked for years in local politics behind the scenes, told us that a group of supporters subsequently asked her to run. We did not find significant ideological differences between them.

Both have assembled impressive endorsements from prominent local Democrats. Among those supporting Hooton are Hullinghorst, former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, District Attorney Stan Garnett, Sheriff Joe Pelle, state Reps. Mike Foote and Jonathan Singer, Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones, Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones and City Council members Lisa Morzel, Sam Weaver and Mary Young.

Among those backing Espinoza are former Congressman David Skaggs, state Reps. KC Becker, Jovan Melton and Joe Salazar, former Boulder mayors Leslie Durgin and Will Toor, and Boulder City Council members Matt Appelbaum, Aaron Brockett, Jan Burton, Andrew Shoemaker and Bob Yates.

Either could do the job, but we endorse Espinoza for the District 10 seat because we think she has the potential to be a star. She has the personality and drive to help adversaries overcome ideological divisions and craft practical solutions to complex problems, traits she demonstrated on City Council and running the Community Affairs Council for the Boulder Chamber.

We also think Hooton has demonstrated uncommon skill in organizing functions and raising money for local Democratic candidates for more than a decade and we'd like to see her continue that work.

Espinoza brings a distinctive skill set we believe could chip away at the partisan gridlock that too often keeps the Legislature from getting much of significance done, including during the session just completed. She is exceptionally bright, grasps issues quickly, and has a knack for making people of strong convictions feel heard and understood.

In her work for the Community Affairs Council, where members spanned the political spectrum, she earned a reputation for thorough knowledge of policy questions and demonstrated a facilitator's talent for deconstructing disputes and finding common ground among disparate interests. Parties who started out on opposite sides of a question have ended up on the same side — supporting a compromise designed by Espinoza. In today's partisan atmosphere, this skill set is even more valuable than usual.

We would also like to see Boulder contribute to greater demographic diversity in the Legislature. Hispanics comprised 21.2 percent of Colorado's population in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but made up just 9 percent of the Colorado House in the last session (six of 65) and 11 percent of the Legislature as a whole (11 of 100). As the Colorado Independent pointed out, Latinos' representation in the General Assembly roughly matched their proportion of the population a generation ago. Since then, Latinos' share of the population has nearly doubled while their representation in the Legislature has remained stagnant.

We think Espinoza's enthusiasm for the job, demonstrated by her early announcement and vigorous campaign, and her uncommon skill at bringing people together and forging solutions to complicated problems, make her ideally suited to represent House District 10.

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